Need for Speed (2014)

Genre: Action/Crime/Adventure/Drama

Starring: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Immogen Poots, Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Keaton

If you take all of the worlds car lovers who are also gaming enthusiast, you will find one common string amongst them all, Need for Speed. The gaming franchisee has earned a reputation for itself over the years and remains the undisputed king in car racing. It was only a matter of time before they decided to make a movie on it. Tobey Marshall (Paul) is a car mechanic who runs a workshop along with some of his friends. He is known to be the best mechanic there is and also a polished racer who regularly takes part in illegal street races. Dino Brewster (Cooper) is Tobey's arch rival on the street circuits and an entrepreneur who buys old cars and restores and upgrades them and makes money by selling them for a profit. Dino offers Tobey to complete an unfinished Ford Shelby Mustang and would get paid 25% of it's sale value. Julia Maddon (Poots) is an exotic car dealer who connects rich people with the cars of their dreams. With the sale going through, Dino challenges Tobey to a race that would entitle him to all of the $2.7 million that he received as a payout. Pete, a young friend of Tobey's and also Dino's girlfriends brother, takes part in the race but unfortunately loses his life after Dino shunts him. Tobey gets falsely framed for the accident and is made to serve time. Once out, he is hungry for revenge and with the help of Julia manages to get hold of the Mustang and takes part in the infamous De Leon race where he could redeem himself. There are very few movies out there who focus only on car racing and are actually good. The Fast and the Furious series of movies started out being just that but somehow shifted its focus soon after. This movie is paradise for a car lover and has the right mix of adrenaline, car chases, crashes and exotic wheels. The only part that could have probably been improvised was the last De Leon race that seemed to happen far too fast, predictable and easy, it was a let down in the name of a climax. I would have expected some very exciting racing that builds up to a climax that is fit for the movie. The story is loosely based on some of the games and does not draw from any one particular game, which is good and bad. Good because it means that the story has some amount of innovation and freshness but at the same time is bad because it does not connect back to the game except for the name. It would have been good if the movie would have borrowed some key points from the game to include in the movie that fans could identify, but sadly there are none. An amazing action movie for the one who loves some smashing cars but the pure NFS fan might feel a little let down with the disconnect with the games.

Thumbs up: Great car racing action

Thumbs down: Weak climax, no relation to the games

Rating: 7.2/10